


The Family You Choose

by chocolatekettle



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Gen, Headcanon, post-Heroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-17
Updated: 2011-10-17
Packaged: 2017-10-24 17:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocolatekettle/pseuds/chocolatekettle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I haven't seen past season 7, so I have no idea if this contradicts later canon. The last bit may well be AU. Likewise, I don't know if Daniel ever went to Atlantis, but it was a convenient place to put him.</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Family You Choose

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't seen past season 7, so I have no idea if this contradicts later canon. The last bit may well be AU. Likewise, I don't know if Daniel ever went to Atlantis, but it was a convenient place to put him.

Time was measured differently on Hanka.  When Sam asked when she was born Cassie said, "The fifteenth day of summer.  I mean, June, eleven years ago", because if she had to pretend she was from Earth she needed to practice.  Sam said that the years of Earth and Hanka were almost the same anyway, so the history the Air Force made for Cassie was, at least, the right length, if it was false in every other respect.

On the fourteenth day of Cassie's first June, Janet said casually, "Sam and the others said they might come over tomorrow and we'll have a little party, would you like that?"

Cassie's response was enthusiastic; she had already decided that she liked Earth parties, after Jack had thrown one for 'Cassie's Official Adoption Day', and the chance to spend a day with all of SG-1 and Janet was rare.  She didn't think to ask what they were celebrating this time.  It wasn't until the next day, when Jack was sweeping her up in his usual bear hug, with Daniel and Sam grinning from behind him and all three of them chorusing, "Happy birthday, Cassie!" that she remembered that the fifteenth of June was her birthday, here.

"But we don't celebrate birthdays," she said blankly.

Voice very gentle, Jack said, "We, Cass?"

She realised, with a sudden rush of guilt and grief, that she hadn't said "we" and meant her own people in months.  She hadn't thought "home" and meant "Hanka" in months.  She wriggled until Jack put her down, and pushed past Janet to get outside.  Teal'c stepped out of her way, then he caught the door as it swung back and followed her out to the porch.

"Are you well, Cassandra?"

Cassie sat scrunched up on the first step.  "We don't celebrate birthdays.  What's the point?  You're alive before you're born and you don't remember being born so it's just another day. And why would you use it to say how old you are?  I'm not a year older today than I was yesterday.  It doesn't make _sense_.  We celebrate life at the turn of the season and I know how old I am because of how many seasons I've lived.  And the seasons are different here but I should remember because I'm the only one left and I _have_ to remember!"

Teal'c sat down cross-legged beside her.  "On Chulak, we do not celebrate the day of our birth either.  The Tau'ri have strange customs, Cassandra, they are a strange people.  Sometimes we do not understand them and sometimes they do not understand us.  But I have found a home and a family here.  We wish only to provide the same for you."

She blinked back tears.  "But I should remember."

"Yes.  We do not wish you to forget your parents.  But we are here and they are not.  I believe O'Neill would call it 'Plan B'."

Cassie leaned against Teal'c and thought about this for a while.  "Yeah," she said eventually, "ok.  Plan B."

**

Cassie spent her seventeenth birthday resolutely trying to ignore it.  She told her friends she didn't feel like celebrating, warned Sam off and enlisted Daniel's help with a French essay that would, with luck, take up most of the day and all of her thinking.  She made it all the way through lunch, three chapters of _L'Étranger_ and an essay introduction, and spaced out sometime during an impromptu lecture on the difference between the passé simple and the passé composé, listening for the front door opening, for light footsteps on the stairs and a voice calling _Cass, honey, happy birthday._

She realised what she was listening for at around the same time she realised what she wasn't hearing.  Daniel had stopped talking and was watching her carefully.  "Cassie?  Are you ok?"

Cassie struggled to choose the right words.  _I miss her, I miss her as much as I missed Hanka and my parents and my friends.  I don't belong here without her.  She said she would look after me and she's gone and I'm angry at her and Jack and you and at myself for being angry. **I shouldn't have to go through this again.**_ She glanced at Daniel, back down to the desk.  Maybe, of all people, Daniel would understand.  "Remember when you told me about your foster parents?  You said they were great and you loved them, but they were never your parents."

"Yes, I remember."  His eyebrows were still being quizzical.

Cassie stared at the book in front of her.  _Aujourd'hui, maman est mort_.  "It wasn't like that for me."

"Cassie..." Daniel moved as if to hug her, then changed his mind, took the book away and closed it.  "Cassie.  I know it's hard.  And I know you're angry and you think it isn't fair that this has happened to you and you're right.  It's not fair, and we all miss her and we're all sorry we couldn't protect her.  But you're not on your own, this time.  You still have us."

"It's not the same, though, is it?"

"No.  It's not the same.  But it's...it's something."

 _It's a lot,_ she thought, because they were the only things that had kept her from curling up into a ball and shutting out the world.  Sam's shared grief, Daniel's sympathy, Jack's fierce, helplessly mute affection, and the words of life and pride and loyalty that Teal'c gave Sam to say.

Cassie had lost a family and a world and, now, a second mother.  But Daniel had lost a world and two families too.  He had survived, and he understood.

**

Cassie's twenty-first coincides with her graduation from the Academy.  She isn't expecting anyone to be there - Sam has been in Atlantis for months; Daniel finally talked his way there a few weeks ago; Teal'c is off-world with the new leadership of the Jaffa Nation, and none of them are due back for at least another month.  Jack is in Washington, buried under a mountain of paperwork now, and, judging by his last email, ready to blow something up.  She's fine with it right up until her bunkmate drags her into a crowd of their friends, all of them happy and laughing and introducing Cassie to their parents and _she wants her mom_ , and if she can't have that she wants the rest of her family.

Tommy Sayer snaps her out of her moment of loneliness by nudging her arm.  "Hey, Fraiser, look!"  She laughs at his wide eyes, because they've already seen General Jumper _and_ the President today and who could possibly be exciting after that?  But she turns to look and is surprised into an unguarded, "Jack!"

Sayer's excitement makes sense now - like Cassie, he's graduating right into a place at the SGC and seeing a two-star general can be nearly as cool as seeing the Chief of Staff, if it's the right general.  His indignant "You never said you knew him!" follows Cassie across the grass.

She skids to a stop in front of Jack, suddenly shy.  For the first time in her life, she doesn't know how to greet him.  Here, now, stony-faced in the impeccable dress blues, he is very much General O'Neill, and newly commissioned second lieutenants do not throw themselves at Major Generals and hug them.  The general decides for her, saying calmly, "Lieutenant."

She straightens to attention and salutes.  "Sir."

He returns the salute and says, "Stand easy, Lieutenant.  Congratulations."  Then his face softens into the familiar smirk, he jerks his chin at the bar on her shoulder and then he's Jack again and it's alright to grin and hug him and tell him that she's really, really glad he's here.  It takes a bit more effort these days because Cassie's put on some muscle and Jack has lost some of his field-unit fitness, but he lifts her off her feet anyway.  "She would be proud of you, Cass," he says quietly.  "I'm proud of you."


End file.
